DIRTY TRICKS

Dibdin's fifth novel (The Tryst, 1990, etc.) combines sex and violence in hilarious and appalling ways as narrator Tim—a poor but well-educated language-school instructor—jockeys for position among the academics and the ``right sort'' at Oxford. Tim's affair with Karen begins at a dinner party—in the kitchen, while her husband Denny is pontificating at the dining-room table. As their lusty bouts heat up, the notion of dispatching Denny pops up—and soon he's done away with on a drunken sail. In due course, Tim and Karen marry, and Tim settles in to enjoy Denny's house, wife, and wealth. Then, however, Karen accepts Clive (Tim's archenemy) as her new lover, leaving Tim to moon over near-perfect Oxford woman Alison and to arrange a mishap for Karen, with Clive as the scapegoat. Will Tim get away with it? Almost, but his misreading of Alison's devotion leads to a comeuppance—of sorts. A jaunty, cynical sendup of the British class system, ``perfect'' marriages, and expediency as a personal leitmotif. A comedy about immorality that'll make you cringe.